Census 2016: The tragedy, triumphs and drudgery of modern family life revealed

Finally, Hinduism was the fastest-growing religion in Australia in the past 25 years, up from 0.3 per cent of the total population in 1991 to 1.9 per cent in 2016.

Australia’s entire population grew by almost two million from the 2011 census, reaching 23.4 million people in 2016.

The rates of volunteering are highest among males aged 45 to 54 years at 302,612 people.

Curtin University population analysis expert Amanda Davies said while WA households had slightly higher incomes, they also had higher mortgage repayments.

“Australia has developed a case of middle-aged spread”, said the bureau’s director of census data Sue Taylor.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Will Melbourne soon be Australia’s most populous city? If humanity stopped believing in Gods, we would still have plenty of problems.

If people don’t indicate a faith, the Shakers warn, “in time Australia will officially be declared to be a Muslim country – because the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census will reflect this”, according to News Australia.

‘Personally I thought that perhaps putting it onto the Census it would hurry up the marriage thing for us.

“It is so important in terms of planning and thinking and considering what is going to happen to volunteering into the future”.

Consider, too, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples having increased by 18 per cent since the 2011 census, when they made up 2.5 per cent of Australians.

“While the unaffiliated are expected to continue to increase as a share the population in much of Europe and North America, people with no religion will decline as a share of the population in Asia, where 75% of the world’s religious “nones” live”, the report said. The population size has increased by 18.4 per cent since 2011 and has nearly double since 1996.

The 2016 census found that 40% of the overseas-born population were born in Asia, marking the first time more people have come from there than Europe.

The data will no doubt be dissected a million different ways before the next snapshot in 2021, but here’s what we have learned since the Census results were released this morning.

The failure to provide an “other” box on the paper forms would have confused many, it said, and many responses suggesting gender fluidity – such as ticking both boxes – were ruled as either invalid or mistakes.

Just under half (49 percent) of Australians were born overseas or has one parent who was born overseas.

Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson said the swing to a more urban population was demonstrated by the growth in the number of people now living in urban apartments.

The number of Aussies renting has also jumped, with 30.9 per cent of Australians renting in 2016, compared to 26.9 per cent a quarter of a century ago.

“I never got into the housing market and, these days with the way rents are, it’s very hard if you’re on a lower income or even a medium income, ” said Mr O’Neill.